


Close Call

by starryeyedchar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Major Character Injury, Missions Gone Wrong, because technically it's not death, but...physical hurt..., don't worry he lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-12 16:50:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11166006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedchar/pseuds/starryeyedchar
Summary: Lance and Keith get sent on a solo mission, which ends up going horribly wrong. The two are captured, and separated. Lance is badly injured, which is not ideal when in a Galra prison cell. And Keith, since all he knows is that Lance was hurt, is extremely worried.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is partly me just wanting to write some klangst, partly procrastinating my other unfinished stuff, partly to celebrate VLD's one year anniversary, and partly inspired by Jeremy Shada saying "I mean, Lance dies, so that'll be fun," when asked about season three. There are four parts to this, which will get progressively longer. The rest will be up soon.

Keith woke up to an empty cell. The room was dimly lit, a faint purple glow making it just possible to see. As his eyes adjusted, the ache on the back of his head reminded him of exactly how he ended up here.

Keith supposed he should feel lucky. After all, once the sentries surrounded him, he figured they'd just kill him. Still, it was hard to feel optimistic when he was stuck in a Galra prison cell with no hope of escape.

It'd been no one's fault, really. The rebel group Matt was a part of had been reported captured, and taken into this prison base. They had to act fast, before the prisoners were sent off to other locations. Two of the Paladins infiltrated, while the rest monitored from the castle, opting for a stealth job.

And, like so many other plans before it, everything had gone to shit.

Keith had been holding off a large crowd of sentries, but once Lance's location was discovered—

_Lance._

Keith sat straight up and looked around frantically. The blue paladin was nowhere in sight, the cell just as empty as before. After what happened, he couldn't have possibly gotten away. So what happened to him? Maybe they put him in a different cell...

Keith tried to calm his nerves, but the panic only grew stronger. Keith didn't know where Lance was, if he was injured, or even _alive_.

Keith resolved to put that thought out of his mind entirely. Lance dying was just impossible. It simply couldn't happen. Besides, the Galra probably wanted the paladins alive for questioning, anyways.

Although, if they had Keith for questioning already...

Keith banged a fist against the wall, trying his best to stop his train of thought before it reached places he definitely didn't want it going.

“ _LANCE_!” he shouted, kicking at the wall. “LANCE, WHERE ARE YOU?! ARE YOU OKAY?!”

Keith couldn't shake the feeling that however badly hurt Lance was, it'd be his fault.

He'd suggested they fight back to back against the sentries that suddenly came rushing in, but the blue paladin had a better idea. Lance went to higher ground, and took out the robots from afar while Keith hacked at them with his sword.

“This way you can be as reckless and crazy as you want with that thing, without worrying about not-so-accidentally chopping me in half,” he'd said. “Besides, I can utilize my bayard better from farther away.”

And it'd been going pretty good at first. Until Keith got overconfident.

He let his defenses down, even put away his shield completely in favor of moving faster. This was an important mission, after all, and he wanted to get it over with. The worst part was that this didn't have any repercussions, not for Keith at least. He knew he could rely on Lance to take out any soldiers that got too close.

The problem was that Lance grew so focused on eliminating threats near Keith that he didn't even notice when a large group of sentries diverged from the crowd to go towards him. They may have been robots, but they could identify where the blasts were coming from.

Keith remembered hearing a shout, and looked up to see one of the sentries standing over Lance with a sword in hand. If he thought back on it, he was certain that the sword was absolutely covered in blood. Keith had just enough time to realize that Lance was no longer moving before the remaining crowd of sentries managed to tackle him to the ground.

Keith shook his head to clear it. Worrying about Lance wouldn't get either of them out. After an hour or so in an Altean pod he'd be good as new. They just had to get back to the castle.

The others would be able to break them out pretty quick, with a small base like this. No major generals seemed to be stationed here, mostly just sentry drones and the overseer of the prisoners. The thought was a comfort, albeit a small one.

Keith fiddled with the com link on his helmet, but the only noise he could make out was static. The growing ache on his head was probably the cause, and he took off the helmet to confirm a large dent in it. He winced. A blow like that would've definitely given him a concussion if he didn't have the armor.

“Shiro?” Keith tried anyway. “Pidge? It's me, Keith. Lance and I were captured, and I think he might be hurt I— they put us in different cells. We need a rescue, preferably soon.”

No answer.

Keith cursed, and resisted the urge to throw his helmet across the room.

“Come on,” he continued. “Can anybody hear me?! We need—”

Keith was cut off by the door opening. He was on his feet in seconds, scanning for any sign of Lance. But it was just another sentry, not dragging the limp form of Lance behind him. Keith wasn't sure if he should feel relieved or not, but at this point he just wanted to see him.

The robot walked into the room, and started towards Keith. He attempted to defend himself, but with no shield, no bayard, and a still aching head he couldn't do much. To Keith's surprise, it yanked the helmet out of his hands. He reached forward to take it back, but soon stopped cold.

The sentry was now holding _two_ helmets in his arms. One of them was the immediately recognizable blue of Lance's armor.

And it had blood on it.

Keith staggered backwards, half wishing he hadn't found out anything at all. He guessed the helmets probably had tracking devices in them, but he couldn't find it in himself to care that his was being taken.

Because Lance was injured, and seriously injured, if the sheer amount of blood was any indication.

And Keith couldn't do _anything_ about it.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out what Lance is up to, in a different prison cell.

“You're awake.”

The voice carried immeasurable relief, which Lance couldn't help but consider odd, seeing as he didn't recognize it.

He blinked, eyes adjusting blearily to the dim prison cell. Consciousness, unfortunately, brought the pain in his side with it. He shifted his gaze to the person leaning over him, who appeared to be pressing a cloth to the stab wound.

And Lance sucked in a breath. He _knew_ those eyes. The color of the hair, the pale skin, even down to the small build. Lance recognized it all.

Despite never seeing the boy in person before, Lance knew without a shred of doubt that he was looking at Matt Holt.

“I thought you were a goner for sure,” Matt muttered, more to himself than to Lance. “How the hell did the Galra capture another human? What're you doing in space?”

Ignoring the searing pain and blood that continued to stubbornly flow from his gash, Lance couldn't resist a smile. “You're Matt Holt, aren't you?”

Matt sat back, eyes wide with shock. “Yeah...?” he said carefully, watching as Lance moved to press the cloth to his own wound.

“Well, I'm Lance,” he stuck out a hand, before realizing it was covered in blood. He flashed Matt an apologetic smile, and returned to applying pressure. “I'm... sort of here to rescue you.”

Matt snorted. “Great job, on your part.”

“I'm just glad I found you,” Lance shrugged. “Keith and I would've scouted the whole base just to get to this one cell, but now he can just... oh, hey, you didn't happen to see another human here, did you?”

“ _Two_ humans?” Matt raised an eyebrow.

Lance nodded, pushing himself up along the wall. “Yeah. My... teammate Keith came here with me. He's wearing armor like mine, except his is red, and he's got really dark hair that's too long?”

Matt shook his head. “The only human I've ever seen here is you. Well, besides Takashi, but that was— never mind.”

“Hopefully that means he got out okay,” Lance mumbled. “But they could've put him in a different cell. Do you think they'd separate us, if he got captured, too?”

Matt winced. “Well, I think it's a good thing he's not in _this_ cell.” At this, Lance only looked more confused, so Matt continued. “From what I understand, this is the cell where they put the... _dying_ prisoners.”

Lance supposed that made sense. Why keep injured prisoners around? They wouldn't last in the terrible conditions, and probably wouldn't be able to endure the type of rough questioning he knew the Galra were fans of.

“That means that Keith isn't badly injured,” he breathed out in relief. “That is, if he even got caught. Knowing Keith, he probably destroyed the remaining sentries and didn't even notice I got taken.”

_Or he's dead already_ , Lance's brain supplied helpfully.

“But... you're here,” Matt said slowly, as if he thought Lance might be delirious, and not fully understand the direness of his own situation.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance dismissed the statement with a wave of one blood-coated hand. “So are you, but you seem fine to me.”

Matt sighed, and rolled up his pant leg. Lance resisted the impulse to gasp.

His leg had a long cut down it, painted in angry reds and yellows that stood out especially on his fair skin. “Old wound that got reopened during the fight,” he told Lance. “Guess it didn't completely heal right the first time. It's infected, and I can barely walk. The warden thought it'd be best to just throw me in here until I succumb to the fever.”

Lance took this time to look at Matt in more detail. Sure enough, his skin was paler than it probably should be, and his forehead shimmered with sweat. He hesitated, then reached out to place a palm on the other boy's head.

“Quiznak,” Lance cursed. “You _are_ burning up. We've got to get you out of here.”

“Get _me_ out of here?!” Matt asked, incredulous. “You're the one bleeding out!”

“Maybe I am now, but my team will be here soon,” Lance said, assuring himself more than Matt. “They'll break us both out, and after an hour in the pods we'll be good as new.”

“Your team?” Matt asked, brows furrowed. “Pods?”

“Yeah, my team. You've been in space for a little over a year, right? Ever heard of Voltron?”

“Well, yeah,” Matt said slowly. “The Galra talked about it all the time. When the resistance broke me out, they finally explained what it was. Five robot lions that combine, right? Most powerful weapon in the universe?”

“That's us,” Lance grinned proudly. “As you could probably tell by the armor, I pilot the blue lion. So don't worry, getting us out of here will be a piece of cake for them. Actually, I don't know about the cake... there's no cake in space, I can tell you that much. Plenty of goop, though.”

“ _You_ pilot the blue lion?” Matt's doubt was obvious, and Lance felt his smile falter.

“Yeah?”

“But... you're just a kid!” Matt exclaimed.

“I'm nineteen!” Lance declared, outraged. “Besides, the pilot of the green lion is even younger than I— oh, shit! I can't believe I didn't mention Pidge! She's going to be so happy you're okay! Well, not exactly _okay_ , but—”

“Who's... who's Pidge?”

Lance stared at him dumbly for a moment, before smacking a hand to his forehead. "Great, now I feel like a complete idiot. _I_ know her as Pidge, but I guess you probably always called her Katie. You should get used to Pidge, though, or everyone on the castle's going to be _really_ confused—”

“Katie,” Matt whispered. “Katie as in my little sister? My little sister is piloting the green lion, one of the five most powerful weapons in existence?”

“Yeah, and she's pretty good at it, too,” Lance informed him. “Not as good of a pilot as me, of course, but decent. She's definitely the smartest one of us, that's for sure. She's... she's been looking for you everywhere.”

Matt slumped against the wall, his expression of confused yet happy shock was so similar to Pidge that Lance felt his smile return full force.

“And you probably remember Shiro,” Lance continued. “He's the leader. Pilot of the black lion.”

Matt laughed. “Why am I not surprised?”

“We've... we've all been searching for you for a _really_ long time. So, you understand why I can't exactly let you die yet.”

“You're in worse shape than I am,” Matt argued, fixing Lance with an unamused glare. “My reunion with Katie isn't about to be ruined by the death of one of her closest friends.”

“That's fair,” Lance agreed. “But I've survived literally being in the same room as a bomb that went off, thanks to Altean tech. Don't worry, we're gonna be okay. All we have to do is wait.”

Matt nodded, hopeful, and Lance smiled back.

But with the amount of blood Lance had already lost, he knew that his chances were slim. As much as he played the part of the idiot, Lance McClain wasn't stupid. And he knew Matt wasn't either.

He also knew that all things considered, Lance should be terrified. But he _wasn't_ , which was the actual scary part.

Still, if his death got Pidge her brother back... would that really be such a bad way to go?

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance's injuries are taking their toll on him, and Keith is an angry, worried mess. Neither of them are overly fond of waiting.

Lance continued to stare determinedly at the door. _Any moment now,_ he told himself, _Keith is going to break down that door, and get us out of here. We just have to stay patient. What's that thing Shiro always says to Keith to calm him down? Patience yields focus._

“How're you holding up?” Matt asked again, looking over at Lance with concern.

“'M good,” Lance answered shortly. Matt eyed him skeptically, but Lane couldn't bring himself to say any more. Talking had become a conscious effort, and a painful one.

Lance's breath came out in short gasps, and the wound had _still_ not stopped bleeding. Granted, the sword had stabbed straight through, but Lance had been applying pressure ever since he woke up.

Still, without any proper medical supplies, his efforts didn't do much. Both Matt and Lance neglected to address the slowly growing pool of blood under the blue paladin.

“Th-they took my helmet, right?” Lance asked, wishing he could do anything but just sit there.

“Yeah,” Math replied softly. “Pretty soon after dropping you off.”

Lance sighed. “Probably found out they had trackers, and communication devices,” he muttered. “They probably.... probably wouldn't have worked, a-anyway. Just wish I had something to contact the team. Get them to... to come here faster.”

“They'll get here in time,” Matt assured him, but the words were empty of hope. “We're _both_ getting out of here with your team. You'll see.”

Lance nodded, but the faint motion made him aware that his vision had started to blur around the edges. Not only that, but there was suddenly a complete absence of pain.

He glanced down, confirming that the wound was, in fact, still there. Even as it continued to gush blood around him, Lance felt completely numb.

Which _definitely_ wasn't a good sign. Instead of acknowledging this, he plastered a smile across his face.

“You're right,” he agreed. “I'm... I'm supposed to go out fighting. Not bleeding out in some... some dingy little cell in a random Galra b-base. 'M gonna go out with an explosion. You know, with a... with a...”

Before he could say _bang_ , Lance's eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell backwards onto the floor.

* * *

 When the door opened next, Keith was prepared.

He may have been in a bit of a tough situation, but when his only choices were to plan for escape or worry about his potentially dead teammate, Keith chose the former.

Well, he definitely did worry about Lance a lot, but he tried his best not to.

So, when the door to his cell opened, Keith jumped on the sentry immediately. He tackled it outside of the door, and pinned it to the opposite wall within seconds, before raising a threatening fist.

“WHAT'D YOU DO WITH THE BLUE PALADIN?” he shouted into it's face.

This, conveniently, was the moment that Keith finally registered he had not attacked a sentry. Standing in front of him with wide eyes and slightly raised hands was none other than Hunk.

Keith jumped back immediately, and scanned the hall. None of the others were there, though, and neither was Lance.

“He's... Lance isn't with you?” Hunk asked, his voice small. “But you both were taken, we couldn't get communications from either of you after Lance's shout. We... we were all pretty freaked out.”

“We need to find Lance,” Keith insisted. “He's badly injured, I think he got stabbed, and there was blood on his helmet, and we just... we need to find him.”

“Keith,” Hunk said nervously. “Pidge scanned the system, and the only cell in this base that's received new prisoners today was yours. If Lance wasn't in there, then he could be—”

“I'm sure he's in one of these cells,” Keith said stubbornly. “He's got to be.  We just have to open them.”

Hunk and Keith made quick work of opening the cells with Keith's Galra genetics, but every door that opened discouraged them a little more. Lance was seemingly nowhere to be found, and to make matters worse Matt wasn't in any of the cells either.

However, many of the prisoners were from the same group of rebels that they knew Matt had joined. The leader addressed Hunk and Keith.

“Thank you for freeing us,” he began. “But not all my men are accounted for. One of them was injured during the fight, and they must've taken him somewhere else. I will not leave the base until we know Matt is safe.”

Hunk rested a hand on his shoulders. “You don't have to worry. We're going to find him, but the best thing for you to do is board a pod and go back to the castle. We don't want to draw more attention.”

He nodded solemnly, and the rebels that had fought with Matt all headed towards the pods. Once they were gone, Hunk turned to Keith.

“You said Lance was injured?”

Keith nodded, and Hunk grimaced.

“I think I might know how to find him.”

* * *

Following the trail of blood didn't do much to ease Keith's panic. If anything, the near-constant streaks of red down the hall just made him wish this whole thing had never happened.

When the two of them reached the set of metal steps that led down to the lower floors of the base, Keith felt his stomach drop.

“Oh, quiznak,” Hunk muttered, as they stared at the continuing trail. “They _dragged_ him down the stairs.”

“This is all my fault,” Keith whispered, as they quickened their pace. “If he hadn't... Lance wasn't paying attention to his own safety, because he was so focused on helping me! He's hurt and... and it's because of me.”

To Keith's surprise, Hunk laughed softly. “But that's nothing new with Lance. He never pays attention to himself when someone else is in danger,” he said fondly, then continued at Keith's confusion. “I don't know if we told you guys this, but when we were getting the yellow lion, Lance faced all the ships by himself. He sent me down to get the lion, and nearly got blown to bits by Galra missiles.”

“He almost died that one time when Sendak infiltrated the castle,” Keith recalled. “All because he tackled Coran to protect him from that bomb. And... when he almost got sucked out into space from the airlock, he was still worried about _me_.”

“Exactly,” Hunk clapped a hand on Keith's shoulder. “So don't beat yourself up too much. Lance does stuff like this regardless, it's just who he is.”

Keith wanted to respond, but he was cut off by shouting. They could barely make out the words, but they heard just enough to race down the rest of the stairs, and to the door it was coming from. “HELP! SOMEBODY, PLEASE, WE NEED HELP!”

The door was heavy metal, but it didn't take much to get open. The two were about to run inside when they caught sight of what was inside the cell, and stopped cold.

Lance wasn't the one shouting.

In fact, the blue paladin was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood, completely unresponsive. Above him was who appeared to be Matt Holt, doing chest compressions rapidly, and looking panicked.

At the sound of the door, Matt's wide-eyed gaze snapped up to meet that of the two paladins standing there, horrified. “He's not breathing.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind that there's a part four. And keep in mind that I hate writing sad endings.


	4. Chapter 4

Lance tumbled out of the healing pod like he did so many other things; without warning. The others were sat around the room when suddenly the walls of the pod disappeared, and the blue paladin fell forward. He would've face-planted into the floor of the infirmary if Hunk hadn't been there to catch him.

He looked around in confusion for a moment while his eyes adjusted to the bright lights, and met the gaze of his best friend.

“Hey, Hunk,” he smiled, voice raspy and uneven. “Miss me?”

Hunk sighed with relief, giving Lance a shaky grin of his own. “You know I did,” he admitted. “Don't you _dare_ scare me like that again. I was worried sick!”

Lance laughed, and let himself be wrapped up in one of Hunk's signature, bone-crushing hugs. “Sorry,” he shrugged. “Guess I should be more careful. So, what'd I miss?” He looked around at the others with an expectant smile on his face, but it wavered quickly. The rest of the team all looked worse for the wear themselves.

Pidge's eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, while Shiro looked even more worn down than usual. Allura and Coran both stood off to the side, with strained expressions of relief. Keith was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, stoic and silent as usual, but Lance could see the bags under his eyes. In short, they all looked exhausted.

“Um... you guys?” Lance asked uncertainly, voice catching. “Why all the grim looks? What's wrong?”

Allura and Shiro exchanged a nervous look. “How much do you remember?” asked the princess.

“I remember...” Lance trailed off, eyes scanning the room for the person he'd missed. His gaze caught on Matt, who was standing in his periphery, in front of another pod. A wave of relief washed over him. “Matt. Sorry I missed the Holt sibling reunion, but it's good to see you're okay, dude.”

Matt gave Lance his own small smile, though he looked tired, too. “Right back at you.”

Lance turned back to Allura. “I remember being in the cell with Matt, and... not much else, if I'm honest,” he confessed. “Why? How long was I out for?”

“Not long, all things considered” Coran assured him. “About two weeks.”

“ _Two weeks?!_ ” Lance practically shrieked. “Last time I was only in the pod for... what? A day or two, right?”

“Well,” Pidge piped up, adjusting her glasses. “Your injuries were pretty severe. You needed a lot of time to heal.” She cleared her throat, averting her eyes. “We were all pretty worried.”

“You're lucky my blood's O-negative,” Hunk muttered under his breath.

“Oh,” Lance said softly, momentarily at a loss for words. His grin returned quickly, though. “But I'm fine now! We can get back to business as usual. I bet I have a lot of training to catch up on, right, Allura?”

Despite his efforts to return things to normal, the team just exchanged looks full of thinly veiled concern. Lance couldn't shake the feeling that there was something they weren't telling him.

“We're glad you're feeling better Lance,” Shiro finally spoke. “But I think it's best we get food in your system, first. Then you should probably rest.”

Lance laughed, trying to hide his discomfort. “Yeah, right. I just spent two weeks getting a ton of rest, and that green space goop? Disgusting. I think I might take Blue for a spin,” Lance declared, stretching his arms over his head. The others said nothing, just glanced anywhere but at him. “Jeez, what's with all the moping? This must've been a pretty close call, huh?”

There was a beat of heavy silence.

“You were _dead_.”

Lance turned to face Keith in shock. The red paladin stood with his arms at his sides, fists clenched and shaking. Lance fidgeted under his glare. “Wh-what?”

“You _died_ ,” Keith repeated. “Your heart _stopped beating_.”

Shiro started towards him. “Keith, let's just—”

“No!” Keith's loud voice echoed in the empty infirmary. “I'm not going to just go back to pretending everything's normal. I— I won't! _Nothing_ is normal! I... he could've...” Keith trailed off, looking at Lance. The mask of a smile on his face had given way to surprise, and hurt.

“Never mind,” Keith growled, whirling around. He stormed out of the room, and Lance watched him go.

* * *

 Keith paced around his room, completely lost in thought.

He'd always been a man of action. Hopeless at voicing his thoughts, he tried to convey what he felt through _doing_. And most of the time, it blew up in his face. Sometimes literally.

Keith also prided himself on his ability to hide emotions. He had a habit of burying his feelings deep down inside himself, and not addressing them until he was ready to deal with them.

When he'd seen Lance bleeding out on the floor of that cell... he'd only allowed himself one second of panic. One second to be absolutely terrified, and then it was as if his body had been switched onto autopilot.

He'd picked Lance up off the floor, and began sprinting towards the red lion. He was vaguely aware of Hunk's sobbing as he helped Matt up, saying to Keith that he'd get them both to the yellow lion. The yellow paladin always wore his emotions on his sleeve, for everybody to see. His cries echoed in the ears of the entire team, even as he said they should prep a pod.

Keith did his best to numb everything he felt, resolving to be upset later. To cry when Lance was safe. There was no time to waste. He flew back to the castle as fast as possible, and got Lance into the medbay before he could even fully process the situation. He watched as Allura used some complex Altean device, attempting to restart Lance's pulse, and he helped get Lance into the pod after the heart-rate monitor _finally_ started beeping again.

They all stood around the pod, and it was when Allura announced that Lance was going to live that Keith allowed himself to break down.

He collapsed onto the floor in front of the pod, sobbing. Lance would be okay. He'd _live_ . And yet Keith couldn't stop thinking of everything that could've gone differently. What he could've done to prevent Lance from getting injured in the first place. Or if he'd been even a _minute_ later in finding him...

These were the thoughts that plagued his mind as he walked back and forth in his small room, and had stuck with him for the past two weeks. Keith couldn't sleep, could barely eat. The image of Lance surrounded by a pool of his own blood, motionless and seeming devoid of life, refused to leave Keith's head. He just kept... _seeing_ it. Even though he knew Lance was okay, probably sleeping in his own room right now, Keith couldn't help thinking _what if he wasn't._

Keith couldn't help remembering that moment after putting Lance in the pod, when he realized that he was _covered_ in the blue paladin's blood.

He shook his head to clear it, resolving to go to the training deck. It wouldn't get rid of the problem, but it would be a welcome distraction. He opened the door, only to reel back in surprise.

Lance stood before him, a fist raised and poised to knock. His eyes widened when he saw Keith, and immediately took several steps backwards into the hall. “Uh... hi,” he said, with a small wave.

Keith crossed his arms, instantly guarded. “What do you _want_ , Lance?”

Lance flinched at the words, casting his gaze towards the floor. “I... came here to apologize. To you.”

Keith raised an eyebrow.

“You know... for messing up the mission,” he continued. “My actions got both of us captured, and I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. I know you're super mad at me, and I already told Shiro he shouldn't send us on missions together anymore. The Galra wouldn't have caught either of us if I'd just been paying attention. I should've—”

“Shut up.”

Lance winced, rubbing the back of his neck, then continued. “Look, it's fine if you don't want to speak to me, like, ever again. I just needed _you_ to know that _I_ know I really messed up, and that I'm really sor—”

“I said, _shut up_ ,” Keith repeated. “Stop talking.”

Lance clamped his mouth shut in surprise. Keith tried to ignore the hurt written across his face.

“You think...” Keith mentally cursed himself, unable to find the right words. “You think that I'm mad at you because we got _captured_?”

Lance shuffled from foot to foot awkwardly. “I... yeah?”

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Are you _serious_? You think I'm mad at you for 'messing up the mission?'”

Lance sighed, looking mildly irritated. “Isn't that what I just said?”

“I'm _mad_ because you almost died, you idiot!” Keith practically shouted. “You nearly got yourself killed!”

“Oh,” was all Lance seemed capable of saying. “Right. That. Uh, sorry.”

“ _Stop apologizing_!”

Lance stared back at Keith in shocked silence. Keith huffed.

“Look, I'm just... you saved my _life_ , back there. You got hurt because you were too busy keeping me safe. You're _always_ keeping the rest of us safe, and putting yourself in danger because of it!” Keith ran a hand through his hair, looking away. “And it scares the hell out of me. You could've really _died,_ Lance! You almost did! And it would've... it would've been all my fault.”

Keith looked back up, only to find Lance still staring at him, floored. He abruptly went back to looking at his feet.

“I also came here to thank you,” Lance said softly. “The others told me what you did. Without you, I wouldn't have made it. You've saved _me_ countless times, too, Keith.You know that, don't you?”

Keith let out a short laugh, and Lance's eyes brightened at the sound. “Guess we're both too reckless for our own good, huh?”

“True,” Lance agreed, with a grin. “But it's part of what makes us such a good team.”

Keith was once again reminded of how much he preferred actions to words, because he had absolutely no idea how to respond to that.

So instead, he just kissed Lance.

It was slightly awkward, or at least until Lance took control, which he did almost immediately, after the initial shock wore off. Keith had also accidentally pushed Lance up against the wall in the process, but he didn't seem to mind. The immediate reaction from Lance made Keith think that he'd probably been waiting for this for ages. Then again, they both had.

“Jesus,” Lance muttered, once they'd broken apart, short of breath. “I should die more often.”

“If you do,” Keith threatened. “I'll kill you myself.”

“I'd like to see you try,” Lance laughed. “You know you'd miss me too much.”

Keith seemed to ponder this for a second. “Yeah,” he admitted. “Yeah, I would.” And the two of them were kissing again.

 

_**The End** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seriously loved writing this! Partly because I'm too obsessed with angst, but mostly because of all the amazing feedback, both here and on my tumblr (potato-fan-girl)! I started this because I wanted to do something to celebrate VLD's anniversary, so I figured now would be a good time to write my first multi-chapter fic! And a lot of people really liked it, so I'm definitely going to be writing a lot more! Thank you so much for the kudos and comments!


End file.
